rd says it was the name of Friesland beer; the
meaning, however, was "to drink swinishly like a Dutchman."

We are indebted to the Danes for many of our terms of jollity, such as a
_rouse_ and a _carouse_. Mr. Gifford has given not only a new but very
distinct explanation of these classical terms in his "Massinger." "A
_rouse_ was a large glass, in which a health was given, the drinking of
which by the rest of the company formed a _carouse_. Barnaby Rich
notices the _carouse_ as an invention for which the first founder
merited hanging. It is necessary to add, that there could be no _rouse_
or _carouse_, unless the glasses were emptied." Although we have lost
the terms, we have not lost the practice, as those who have the honour
of dining in public parties are still gratified by the animating cry of
"Gentlemen, charge your glasses."

According to Blount's "Glossographia," _carouse_ is a corruption of two
old German words, _gar_ signifying _all_, and _ausz, out_; so that to
drink _garauz_ is to drink _all out_: hence _carouse_.]

[Footnote 159: "Pierce Pennilesse," sig. F 2, 1595.]

[Footnote 160: When Christian IV. of Denmark was at the court of our
James I. on a visit, drinking appears to have been carried to an excess;
there is extant an account of a court masque, in which the actors were
too tipsy to continue their parts; luckily, their majesties were not
sufficiently sober to find fault.]

[Footnote 161: These inventions for keeping every thirsty soul within
bounds are alluded to by Tom Nash; I do not know that his authority will
be great as an antiquary, but the things themselves he describes he had
seen. He tells us, that "King Edgar, because his subjects should not
offend in swilling and bibbing as they did, caused certain _iron cups_
to be chained to every fountain and well-side, and at every vintner's
door, with _iron pins in them_, to stint every man how much he should
drink; and he who went _beyond one of those pins_ forfeited a penny for
every draught."

Pegge, in his "Anonymiana," has minutely described these _peg-tankards_,
which confirms this account of Nash, and nearly the antiquity of the
custom. "They have in the inside a row of eight pins one above another,
from top to bottom; the tankard holds two quarts, so that there is a
gill of ale, _i.e._, half a pint of Winchester measure between each pin.
The first person that drank was to empty the tankard to the first peg or
pin; the second was to empty